Falling Short

I am falling short, in many areas, including blog posts. 3 months is a long time! Way too much has happened to play "catch up" again, so I'll just share my thoughts. 

Fall....I love fall and this year is especially nice as the spiritual atmosphere is calm. It is the first fall in 13 years that I am not on egg shells. In fact, I have relaxed to the point of "Falling Short." 

I have to admit, life has been hard. Harder than I could have ever imagined, and I have not taken the punch as well as you would have thought. I am Wonder Woman, right? Not even close. Grief is such a horrible emotion. Is it an emotion? It sure feels emotional. Loss.....it is overwhelming. My daughter, deep friendships, church....the loss is far reaching. Sometimes it feels VERY unfair.

And it sucks to have to accept the reality of your situation.

But then you have to make the best of it, right? Isn't there always an alternative?

And if you trust...miracles can happen......

....like winning a hermit crab, while throwing ping pong balls, left-handed into a little fish bowl, set among many little fish bowls, all positioned to make it impossible to win. 

So let's talk blessings and not losses for the rest of this post! Joe moved in and he has been such a ray of sunshine here!!!! He and Bud have really brought some life and laughter back in....see how God replaced one child lost to me with TWO brought home??

And with Joe, my grandchildren have been multiplied.....

....nah...that's the old bunch! ;) (TJ and Zach both had broken bones within 6 weeks of each other, and Emerson turned FIVE!!)

Lakota and Alijah, are amazing kids and we have loved getting to know them and love them like they are our own...which they now are!!! Double portion!!!!

And more blessings....one I am confident enough to share here.....

A new girl!!! Well a new, old girl....Kimi is the woman in Bud's life. They actually went to his senior prom together, and have rekindled their relationship. I think it is pretty serious. She is just the kind of girl to keep him on his toes. She is FUN and loud (she admits that) and is always ready to make you laugh and have a good time. You can NOT be sad around Kimi!!!! Did you know Bud's name is Kim? Yes...Kim and Kimi. This next pic actually shows her personality better.....

We LOVE her, and she makes my son SO SO SO happy!!! 

She has a son, Dylan, who is 6, and so my Grandma cup runneth over!!!!!

It is wonderful to see God restore that which was stolen. Now I need to do MY part....more on that next time. For now I need to get back to my quilt.

Outside My Sewing Room Window

 It is raining for the umpteenth day in a row. I am getting the blues!!!! What a perfect day to work with blue fabric!

I joined in on the Simply Charming Sew Along that Kathy and Darlene are hosting.

I am behind so I need to catch up. My book has not even arrived, but that won't stop me! I am starting with Nellie's Nine Patch, which is self explanatory. They are the cutest little 3 inch 9 patches!

So feeling "blue" isn't all bad! 

We had a great weekend with the grandkids. Emerson and I did some nail therapy....

All her favorite colors, cause she is a rainbow kinda girl!

Papa and I took TJ for his birthday lunch. He chose Steak and Shake for ONE reason.....

The crane game!!!!! He loves that thing!

After several dollars, he was in disbelief that he had nothing to show for it!

It's rigged, he is certain! LOL

I am heading back to the sewing room to finish that little mini with all those cute little blue squares. The girls are spending their rainy day in different ways. Sassy is watching the rain fall, 

while Cammy decided to crawl into Kyle's bed and sleep through it all!

If I had my choice, I would have chosen Cammy's way! 

Til next time!

Stencil Fun!

Thankfully Charlotte loves to cook, cause I have some sewing to do!!! I did get the borders on the 9 patch baby quilt. 

It is bright and cheerful. Every quilting line needs to be marked! What a drag!

It should quilt up fast....I love this little motif!

I still have 6 more 9 patches to mark, and then I will piece the backing and get it basted and in the hoop. I won't get to the basting til Monday, cause I have visitors this weekend. 

Emerson made these flowers using a quilting stencil. So sweet!!! And this guy.....

.....he was so excited to see his uncle! He was in the hospital over night last week with pneumonia. Poor little man! :( He is fine now, except for a little bit of a left over cough. 

This is an older pic, but it looks exactly like my table tonight....coffee and cats as I hand quilt in my chair. 

I closed my facebook account....I was facebook hooked and decided to let it go. I got SO much done today!! ;) So if you were friends with me on facebook, I may or may not come back in the future. Does anyone else find themselves consumed by it? 

The Best of my Life.....Quilting and Grandkids

I can not believe it has been 5 months since my last post. I wondered if I shouldn't just close down the blog, but I remembered it's main purpose.....for them.....

 

So what has been happening? TJ turned 8 last week. I had them for Spring break. 

He is growing so fast and I miss that baby boy. This trip he decided he did not need his morning hugs any more...he was 8 now, ya know! I had a heart to heart and convinced him those morning hugs would always be needed! Emerson is growing too!!

She is such a sweet girl, but a bit of a drama queen at times....

She was left out when the boys went down the street...she is still too little to go in the road. I let her come "quilt" with me and she got happy again. Speaking of quilting....she got her quilt!!!

She was thrilled with it. I was happy with it too. I have gotten a lot of quilting done over the winter months. I finished that baby quilt from the last post I made.

The texture was wonderful.

I also made 3 tied quilts for my 3 cousins. Their dad died several years ago and I made quilts using his flannel shirts. Robby and Meghan were very surprised to see them (Sarah was not there, but she got hers too).

I made several minis and a table runner...all gifts.

All hand quilted. Earlier tonight, I took the last quilting stitches in my latest project, a baby quilt for a shower on Saturday.

I will bind it tomorrow and have set a record for myself. I quilted this 50x50 quilt by hand in two weeks. It usually takes me 6....I will say I enjoy it more when I can take my time! 

My next project is going to be a scrap quilt....oh and 2 more baby quilts. There is a baby boom at my church!!! All the scraps are chosen and ready to cut.

I can't have a post without sharing the girls....Sassy is still queen of the castle.

Cammy has all the attitude!! She was being told to MOVE off of that quilt.....see the ears? She was giving me what Winona calls the "stink eye"!

I promise to come back SOON, and catch you up on my kids. Leave a comment and let me know you are still out there!!! ;)